Omens and portents

Posted by Cheryl on February 13, 1998 at 14:52:11:

I know that none of us like the ending, even those of us who accept it. ;-) But, in reading this a second time, there are plenty of hints and outright statements made about how it will end.

• In the very first paragrah, the narrator tells us Oscar dies when he is 25
  
• The narrator calls Oscar "my great-grandfather" but Lucinda is never referred to as "my great-grandmother" but rather as "our founder" (of the glassworks)
  
• In the doll haircutting chapter, when pots and pans were being flung about the narrator says:

  ...the air was filled with a violence whose roots she could only glimpse years later when she lost her fortune to my great-grandmother and was made poor overnight

  
  

So why are we so surprised when things end exactly the way Peter Carey tells us it will throughout the entire book? I think it a great testament to Carey's storytelling ability that we ignore the evidence and still hope things will turn out alright. I know I did...

REPLIES:

• Well, duh! Janet 21:10:44 2/13/98 (0)
• Omens Hil 19:23:44 2/13/98 (0)
• why did we miss the clues? Kate 14:56:54 2/13/98 (0)

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